Slices of Life
by Neona Nyx
Summary: one-shots about the lives of the final fantasy vii characters and the lives of their children... maybe mostly their children.
1. Fixing Fenrir

That's it! He had finally lost his mind, and it was all because of this tinny brown haired blue eyed girl before him. A girl who had too much of her mother in her. Stubborn and defiant.

"Why can't I help!" Lilith "Lily" Strife said stomping her foot on the ground, "you let Denzel help you!"

The ten-year-old had a point, but Denzel was also older than her and more careful around his motorcycle.

When Cloud didn't answer, Lily gave him a wide-eyed puppy dog look and started to beg, "Please! Please! Please! Let help!"

He should tell her no, but damn that look! He couldn't say no.

"Fine," he sighs, "but you have to listen to me."

"Yay!" Lily exclaimed.

/

The house was quiet… almost too quiet. Even with Denzel at friends and Aaron taking a nap.

Where was Lily! Aerith should be able to hear her daughter's TV as Lily watched her princess movies. But Lily wasn't in her room! And upon further investigation, Aerith quickly found out that her daughter wasn't anywhere in the house.

Scared and panicked, Aerith opened the door to the garage hoping that her husband knew where Lily was or if he could help find her. But as soon as she opened the door, she heard voices and the laughter of a little girl.

On the ground, next to Cloud's motorcycle was Cloud and Lily. Cloud's gaze was on the girl as he gave her instructions on what she should do.

Both of them covered in oil.

The sight of them swept away her worry and replaced it with adoration.

With a smile on her face, she watched the pair work.


	2. The Gift

"Lily, what are you doing?" a voice asked making Lily pause what she was doing and caused her to turn her head to see a spiky blonde haired boy with green eyes that matched their mothers. It was her younger brother Aaron.

"Shush!" she hissed out quietly, the young teen didn't want anyone to know what she was doing, especially her parents. If one of them saw her out here this early in the morning around all these presents, she would be in deep trouble. They would think that she was trying to sneak a peek at her Christmas presents. Even though she was in the middle of the floor wrapping a huge box with only the light from the tree to be her guide.

A present that Lily spent months saving up for. Something that she had to do countless hours of research for, though it ended with her asking uncle Zack what she should get. A gift that she hid for weeks until she finally brought it out to wrap it.

A present for her dad. Something for his motorcycle… well, it was something her mother always wanted him to get, but he was slightly too stubborn to get one. _I'm pretty sure part of the reason was that he didn't want his hair to become more of an untamable mess of spikes… or to have them flattened._

" _He's almost crashed a few times," she remembered Zack telling her, "he's going to hurt himself and your mother would freak."_

So here she was wrapping a box her gift was in… hoping that he will like it and use it.

"You wanna help?" she asked her brother, wanting to get this done faster so she could go back to bed… not to mention that she sucked at gift wrapping and now that her little brother was a awake Lily wanted an extra pair hand.

/

Cloud opened his blue eyes as the first rays of daylight pierced the window, but as he looked around, he noticed something. That it was still dark enough for him to see the light on. A dim light, like the lights from the Christmas tree.

Cloud rolled over, carefully shifting his wife's head onto the pillow as he faced her.

"Hey honey, I think that the kids are awake," he said, as he tried to wake Aerith up.

The only groaned and sank deeper into the pillows.

"Umm… Aaron and Lily are in the living room," Cloud heard Denzel say from the open door, "you might want to get out there before they start tearing the wrapping paper."

"Be up in a minute," Aerith muttered as she rubbed at her eyes. In an effort to open them, "Cloud, can you make sure they aren't going to open anything until I'm out there?"

"Okay," Cloud replied as he got up, put on a shirt and walked out into the living room. But then he saw something that made him pause, right in the middle was a black present that wasn't there when he went to bed last night and that his children were curled up side by side in the middle of the floor. Fast asleep.

When his body allowed him to move, he walked up to the sleeping pair and kneeled to wake them up.

Lily was the first to open her eyes, and yawn, "Merry Christmas dad."

"Merry Christmas," he replied as he watched her pull the black present to her before pushing it to her dad, "what's this?"

Aaron opened his eyes, "Lily got it for you… open it."

Cloud looked at his children with disbelief in his eyes, never had his kids actually got him anything. Most of his gifts came from Aerith - who just put the kid's names on some of them- and Denzel.

Cloud slowly pulled away the black paper to reveal a box that gave nothing away, and when he ripped open the top inside was a black circular object surrounded by bubble wrap.

Cloud looked at his daughter and saw the proud look in her eyes as he lifted up the object. A black helmet that didn't shine in the light that had a symbol of a wolf on it, a symbol that he used to have on his clothes long before Lily was born.

"How did you find this?" Cloud asked her, "and how much was it?"

"I used the gil I saved from the past two years and uncle Zack, and Aunt Wil helped me pick it out and customize it."

Cloud looked at the helmet again and felt his mouth lifted into a smile.

"Thank you," he said while he set it down and opened his arms. Allowing Lily to hug him.

And that is the exact moment when they both caught a flash. The flash of Aerith camera as she witnesses the whole event unfold… thankful that her husband now had a helmet, which would cause her to rest easier. Not to mention it was a thoughtful gift on Lily's part.

"Should we start to open the rest? Aerith asked, which almost resulted in Cloud losing his hearing as the kids cheered and dived towards the pile of presents.

Aerith laughed as she sat on the floor beside cloud and rested her head on his shoulder as the two smiled in content. Watched as their children and Denzel open their gifts.


	3. Candy and Kisses

"Trick or Treat"

Aaron Strife held out a bright blue bag and watched as a handful of chocolate-coated sugar bombs fell into it. Making his bag of goodies weight down even more, and Aaron couldn't wait until he got back home to stuff his mouth full of sweets.

Oh, how he couldn't wait until he got home… even if his mother threw a fit about his Halloween eating habits.

"You barely ate your supper," his mother would scold, "and here you are sitting down eating candy right before bed."

"You're going to make yourself sick!" His father would add.

But honestly, Aaron didn't care. See for a kid Halloween meant free candy and some freedom to do whatever you wanted. And nothing was going to stop him from feasting on the handfuls of candy that fell into his bag.

For Aaron and his sister Lilith- or Lily as she preferred to be called- it was a contest over who got the most candy the fastest. Victoria Fair always won, but that didn't mean the rest wouldn't try their hardest to gain as much sugary goodness as possible.

"Aw a bad little wolf," an older lady with salt and pepper hair said as soon as she got done dumping a handful of candies into their bags. She would have pinched his cheeks too if he didn't hide behind Lily, who was wearing an older style skirt with a poodle near the helm and a black shirt with polka dots. Lily raised a brown eyebrow at the women.

"Aaron doesn't like strangers." She said as she leads her younger brother away from the house, "thank you for the candy!"'

And the night continued.

…

Outside the Strife, household stood a group of kids each holding open their bags of goodies, each of them trying their best to count how much they had… but not a young red-haired girl named Evalina Fair, who stood at the edge of the circle with a torn bag while trying not to cry.

A small group of boys had tried to steal the young girl's candy, and as she tried to get the bag back, it ripped, and everything fell into a storm drain. The little candy she had collected was gone… and no one seems to notice.

"Eve," Aaron had said, "Umm…"

Aaron's emerald eyes fell to his full bag of candy. He really didn't want to give up all his candy. But he was the only one who noticed the tears forming in her bright blue eyes… the only who saw the torn and empty bag.

Aaron felt back for the girl and seeing his sister and mother cry- mostly because of sad movies- a few times… well, seeing anyone cry made him feel bad and uncomfortable.

"Umm… here take it!" he ordered, holding his back up to her.

Slowly the redhead took it, then to his utter shock, the girl dressed as little red riding hood kissed his cheek.

"Thank you, Aaron," she replied.


	4. Mother's Day: Part 1

"Zack!" He heard a voice gasping out in pain as someone kept shaking, "Zack!"

Zack quickly sat up and looked at the other side of the bed, seeing the pain in his wife's red eyes. She kept clutching her distended stomach.

"I-i think…" Willow gasped, trying to talk through the pain.

Zack knee all too well what that pain was with Tori and Evie; however, she was coming early. And the way Wil was starting to scream out in pain threw him into a panic.

He needed to get his wife to the hospital fast! But his two daughters couldn't be left alone.

Gripping his cell, he called the one person he knew would be awake as Zack grabbed a small bag of clothes for Wil as quickly as he could

"Vincent…"

 _...three hours later…_

Zack had tears in his eyes as he held a dark-haired girl in his arms.

His daughter, who was sleeping soundly in his arms.

Artemisia Fair was born thirty minutes after midnight.

"Well," he muttered, "this makes for a pretty eventful mother's so far…"

Wil rolled her eyes and held out her arms, wanting to hold their youngest daughter, "the pain and my need to beat you aside," she said as Zack gently moved the baby into her mother's arms, "you're right it's been pretty eventful…"

She put her head into his shoulder as he pulled both of them close.

"Happy Mother's Day," He muttered to her as he kissed the top of her head.


	5. Mother's Day: Part 2

Aaron Strife tried his best to be silent; he really did! He tried to keep everything clean, but… well, the kitchen counters and part of the floor were full of orange juice. At least it didn't smell too bad, thankfully all Aaron "made" was some cookie dough pop tarts.

"Aaron!" Cloud said as he went to investigate the noises coming from the kitchen to find the mess that his youngest child made.

"I made mommy breakfast!" The little blonde boy said, his emerald eyes shining with pride over his accomplishment, "I was about ready to give it to her."

Cloud looked down at his son holding a small plate with two pop tarts and… okay, that was odd. He was holding a wine glass full of orange juice- and thankfully, it was only orange juice. But his son left a massive mess in their kitchen that Cloud would have to clean up. But he couldn't be mad at his son.

Aaron wanted to do something special for his mom. It was Mother's Day.

"Do you need help carrying that?" Cloud asked.

"No, I got it," Aaron replied as he started walking down the hall.

Cloud smiled at his son, then as his gaze went back towards the mess he signed. _Time to clean this mess._

…

"Happy Mother's Day!" Aerith opened her eyes to see her children coming into the room. Though it was what Aaron had in his hands, that was strange...

"I made you pop tarts, and got you a glass of orange juice," The boy said with pride as he handed her the plate and the glass.

"I thought the glass would be easier to carry, plus it's pretty," Aaron said, noticing the look on his mother's face. He put juice in a wine glass, and while it was odd, his intentions were cute. Aerith took a sip of the juice before putting it on the nightstand.

"Thank you, sweetie," she said as she took a bite of the food, "Yummy!"

"We got you some presents too," Lily and Denzel said as they all crawled into the bed.

"Thank you," She said, drawing the three children into her arms.


End file.
